Rising of the Shield Demon - Part 1

by The Dark Dragen

AU Story: A young man named Naofumi is unwillingly summoned to another world to become one of the four Cardinal Heroes, the problem was the hero he became was hated by the kingdom that summoned him and was considered weak. Read as he overcomes this and the events surrounding this, where he slowly become a darker version of himself. This is a slow and dark story, not for children.

7. Chapter 6

Author's Note: In this chapter, we'll see a slight crossover with the games Darksiders. Now, before any of you moan about how I wrote Erhard, I want to point something out that you might be missing: Naofumi is going to be evil in this story or that's my plan anyway. And for that reason, I'm writing Erhard the way I am, as I don't see him helping an evil Naofumi, so I'm trying to make sure that it won't happen like that. I'm sorry if you are a fan of his, I like him too, but as I said I don't see him helping an evil Naofumi, which is why I wrote him as I have.

Chapter Six…

Fallen Fame!

As the young man left the castle, Naofumi walked into the town where people were giving him dirty looks, looks that told the young Shield Hero that they wanted to hurt and kill him. He hated it… if it wasn't for the fact that he had to save this damn world to return home, he would be more than happy to destroy this place. For now, he had to keep his anger, his rage in check, so that he wouldn't do anything foolish.

The first thing he knew he had to do was to get some new clothes, as without them he would be wearing his underclothes, something his rep couldn't afford right now. His name was already known in a bad light, he didn't want to make things worse by looking like he didn't care what he was wearing. Thinking about what the bitch Myne stole from him, he was glad that he unlock the Treasury Shield the night before, otherwise, he would be in trouble. He wouldn't have the money to do many things.

Going to the clothing shop, the female tailor looked at him with a dark look, as she said a sneer, "What do you want Shield Hero?"

"What does it look like?" Naofumi replied with his own sneer, "I'm after some clothing."

"You're not welcome here." the tailor told him darkly, "I'll not serve a rapist or a woman better in my shop."

And before he could say anything, the tailor used some magic to kick the Shield out of the shop. This happened within a few shops, now of the tailors wanted to serve him, instead, forcing him out of the shops in one way or another, either by magic or having one of the adventurers forcing him out of the store.

It wasn't until he got to the fifth store, a second-hand clothing shop that a tailor was willing to serve him and that's only because they had no option about it. As the store wasn't doing well, so they were forced to serve to those that they didn't want to, even scum like him. He got himself a dark green flex linen tunic with gold timings, he also got a dark blue pair of trousers. He also got a dark green hooded cape with greyish fur around the collar which had a dragon-like medallion to connect the cape. He also brought a pair of brown boots. They were a bit worn, but nothing too bad.

The problem was that instead of fifty copper coins for the lot, he had to pay one silver and fifty copper coins. When asked about this, the tailor told him that he might have to serve him, but there was nothing stopping them from overcharging him. This piss Naofumi off even more, but needing new clothes, he had no option but to pay for the clothes.

The problem was that the tailors weren't the only ones who wouldn't serve him, other stores wouldn't either. As the rumours about him, raping and beating the princess, spread like wildlife… the rumour was around the town in a few hours. With how fast the rumour had spread, Naofumi realized that the rumour would have been out and about hours before he got accused of raping the bitch.

Naofumi had no idea what he did for them to hate him, but knew his life would be hard for him now. Like with getting new clothes, where his new outfit cost him more than it should have. Three times the price as it should be. Naofumi was just thankful that the cape had a low Thermal Resistance ability on it, enough to keep him warm during the cold days and cool in the hot days.

If the shops were going to cost him a lot, he knew that inns would be just the same, so he went to the shops to get himself a tent, even though he knew it would be expensive. But if it was expensive, Naofumi that in the long run, it would be cheaper in the long run as he wouldn't have to pay for an inn every night. For the long run Naofumi brought a four-berth tent, as he knew that whilst he wasn't planning to get companions just yet, he knew that sooner or later he would have to. As without some, he knew he wouldn't be able to defeat the stronger monsters that he'll be facing to level up or in the waves. But at the moment he had problems trusting in people of this land, so it would be some time before he would get companions again, but he felt better to get the tent now than later.

The only other problem he would have was food, he didn't want to have to go to buy food from people who are just going to overcharge him for it, especially given how he had other options. One such option was fishing, he was lucky enough he knew of a spot near a river that he could fish at or even better set up a net to catch fish. Not only that, but he could also make some low-tier traps to capture some of the animals and monsters for food. But to do that, he needed to buy the netting and staff to make the traps, even a fishing rod. Which set him back another silver coin.

As he was shopping, he realized that if he wanted an easier time in this world, he had to do something to earn these people respect. But there's part of him that didn't want to. If they were so easily persuaded that someone could do such a thing without a trail from a few words from their king, then why should he save them? What's stopping the same thing happening again down the line?

But at the same time, even if he wanted to, the problem was he didn't know enough about this world or even country that he was in to start repairing his reputation or make a new one. He had only been here for less than three days, there was no way he could have stepped on someone's foot within that time limit to earn this sort of action to ruin his reputation before he could gain one. So that meant that the princess and the people around him had a problem with something that was connected to him, most likely the damn shield he was stuck with, so they were using him as a scapegoat for some reason.

But if it is the shield that was the problem, how would he be able to fix that problem. The only known way was good old hard work, but the question that he asked himself earlier reminded: if he was able to rebuild his reputation, what's stopping the same thing happening again down the line? The people of this town had shown him how easy it was to convince them he had done something wrong with a few simple words.

So with this and how they were treating him, he had to wonder, would all the hard work he would have to do would be worth it? Other than regaining his good name, what was the point to it all? No, he shouldn't think like that, as much as he hated them, he needed to play somewhat nice so that he could be sent home when all this was done.

He would deal with this later, for now, he had to level up and catch up to the other heroes. As he was walking towards the plains to level up, he remembered a few people trying to talk to him. But the problem was that he wasn't in the mood for talking to people, he wasn't ready, he needed to clear his mind before he talked to anyone. Right now most people wanted to try and hurt him and say hush words, something he didn't want to deal with. So he told them to leave him alone.

o0OoO0o

What Naofumi didn't realize was that one of the cloaked groups he was sending away, were representatives from Siltvelt, who saw the Shield Hero as a God. If he had taken a few minutes to talk to them, he could have been taken away from that kingdom and went to Siltvelt where he would be treated as a god. But then again, if he did talk to them and left with them, he wouldn't become as strong as he would be by staying here, as he wouldn't be fighting to become stronger. But that was a different story altogether.

For our story, by sending the representatives of Siltvelt away, the group went to the inn that they were staying in to report back to their superiors by the use of magical crystals. When they used the Communications Crystal, a shadowy figure appeared in it and the person said, "Shika, report!"

"My lord, I'm sorry to say that our mission to talk to the new Shield Hero was a failure," the hooded person now known as Shika, "when we tried to talk to him, he sent us away and told us he didn't want to talk to us or anyone else."

"Hmm," hummed the shadowy figure thoughtful, "why is this? What has happened there?"

"Well you see my Lord…" and with that Shika explained what was going on, the rumour about Naofumi raping and beating the princess of Melromarc and how people were treating the Shield Hero badly because of this. Shika told his lord that from their own investigation, the story was a lie and was set up to keep the Shield Hero weak and be as an outcast.

"Those damn fuck fools…" hissed Shika's lord, "are they trying to start a damn war again. If the other's learn of this, they'll more than likely want to go to war over this, damn it. Shika, when you get back, I want you and the others to keep a low profile. I don't want the other councillor to learn of this until I can deal with this problem."

"I understand my lord." Shika said as he bowed to the Communications Crystal.

"Now Shika, I have to ask you this, what were you thinking? Talking to the Shield Hero after you learned what has happened." the shadowy figure asked.

"My Lord?" asked Shika confused, he didn't know what he had done wrong here.

"If you were the Shield Hero and was framed for something that you haven't done, would you want to talk to anyone? Or would you send anyone who tried to talk to you away?" asked Shika's lord, "Wouldn't you be angry and distrusting of everyone, seeing how you were just summoned to our world, but only to be framed by the people you were summoned by? If I had to guess, he wants to deal with no one at the moment, thinking that they too would betray you too if they had the chance."

As Shika thought about it like that, he realized his mistake and said with another bow, "Forgive me, my Lord, I didn't think about it like that, I thought that it was better to talk to him and get him to Siltvelt as soon as possible."

"Under normal circumstances, it would have been the right thing to do," admitted the lord, "but with things as they were, you had a bad hand. But at least you have learned something so that if such things happen again, you know what to do."

"So my Lord, do you want me to wait for a while before I try and contact him again?" asked Shika.

"Under normal circumstances I would say yes, but we don't have normal circumstances so doing so will be impossible." the Lord explained, "As by the time that happens, Queen Mirellia will try and prevent him from coming to Siltvelt out of fears that we would use him to start a war with them. Not only that, but she'll most likely to try and use him in a political way to being her country and ours together. Whichever way, she'll make it hard for us to get near to him real soon."

"So what is the plan my Lord?" asked Shika.

For the next few moments there was nothing but silence from the Communications Crystal, before the shadowy figure said, "I do have an idea…" and with that, the Shika's Lord explained his idea to Shika.

When the lord was finished, Shika was unsure about it, as it meant sacrificing a member of his group. "My Lord, are you sure there's no other way?"

"Honestly, not one that I can think of right now," the lord admitted grimly, "we have little time before the Queen or the King finds out about us and forces us out of this kingdom. This way, we'll have someone next to the Shield Hero who could lead him to us, or at the very least let the Shield Hero our side of things."

"What if he just uses her?" asked Shika.

"Then at least we were able to help the Shield Hero somehow," explained the shadowy figure, "it is our place to help him in any way possible. If it means giving him one of us to help him, so be it, it's unlike we are able to help him as much as we want to."

"You're right, it's the very least we can do," admitted Shika after some thought, "but it doesn't mean I can't worry for her."

"I understand, I worry for her too, she is my daughter after all," admitted the lord, "but because of this, I know she's the only one I can trust with this. The only one who I can trust to protect the Shield Hero." Then there was a moment of silence when the shadowy figure said, "Shika, I have to go, I have a meeting to attend to, I'll send my daughter to you within a week."

"Understood my Lord," Shika said with a bow, "I'll return when everything is done here."

And with that, the power of the Communications Crystal went and left Shika standing there, where after a few deep breaths went to deal with his lords plan to help the Shield Hero.

o0OoO0o

Whilst plans were being made for Naofumi, the young Shield Hero was out in the fields trying to level up. He only had ten experience points to go. So he needed to face ten Balloon Monsters, something that wouldn't take long with using traps. But before he did use them though, he wanted to see what his attack was like without the extra attack points. It was worse than he expected. Instead of taking three minutes to defeat one Balloon Monster, it took him seven minutes to defeat one of the damn Orange Balloons.

Naofumi couldn't believe how much harder it was to defeat them without his gloves. He was thankful that he wasn't able to take any damage no matter how much they attacked, meant it was relatively easy to work.

So to level up, Naofumi used spikes to gain the last nine exp he needed, it took about ten minutes to defeat twelve different kinds of Balloon Monsters. He was thankful he learned about this trick or otherwise he feared that he wouldn't be this far nor level up when he did.

Upon levelling up, a screen appeared in front of him:

LEVELLED UP!

+10 Health!

+10 Defence!

+5 Magic Defence!

+5 Magic Attack!

+5 Skill Points

+3 Attribute Points

Orange Small Shield, Yellow Small Shield, Red Small and Leaf Shield Unlocked!

Naofumi had to admit that when he levelled up, he thought that he would only get a notice to say he levelled up and nothing more other than the shields he was now able to use. To get some stats was a great bonus to him. Although, he was hoping to get some more attack points, but what he got wasn't too bad for his first level up. He had hoped for more but considering that he had a Shield for a weapon, it was the best he could hope for.

But seeing the magic attack there give him some hope, he would have to look up about magic and see what magic attacks he could learn. But he wasn't expecting much, he didn't think his luck would hold up to strong magical attacks, but to be honest, though, any form of attack power was better than nothing.

He was happy to see that he was able to unlock a few of his shields.

Wondering how many EXP he needed to get to level three, he opened his EXP screen.

Level 3:

3/240

Naofumi sighed as he saw this, it would seem that he had to get just under two hundred and forty EXP to level up again. Whilst he had the Tantric Shield, to help him summon more monsters, he knew that before long the weak assed Balloon monster would help him to level up and would have to find something stronger to fight. This lead to his attack points. Sure the spikes that he is using would be useful, but sooner or later, they'll become less useful as the monsters' levels get higher.

Because right now, the spikes whilst able to pop the Balloon Monsters, it was because they were weak and full of air, so they wear easy to deal with, with the spikes he was using. Soon he would be dealing with tougher monsters, monsters that were made from flash and bones and tougher skin, not counting their higher levels or/and defence/HP. Without his armour, the once Red Balloons that he had an easy time with, became a handful. Not enough to be a real problem, but he could feel their baits a bit more than before and without the spikes, they would be more of a problem.

But this was something he would have to deal with later on, for now though, he had too much on his mind to think about this. He needed to clear his mind before he could even think about making new traps and finding ways to level up easier.

Over the next few hours, Naofumi found that the biggest problem he now faced was that their speed. It would seem that without his boots, he is much slower than before. Over the next few hours, he was only able to defeat about ninety Balloon Monsters. He would have liked to have done more, but the problem is that the Monsters were harder to defeat with his lack of attack points and them being faster. Not only that, but he was only able to use his Tantric Shield about eight times as each time he used the shield it took five Spirit Points and it took some time to recover the points, and only summoned between five and eight Balloon Monsters. Not even the bonus from his Appraisal Shield helped when the appraisal for the Balloon Monster had gotten to %100.

Although, during the day when he was fighting the Balloon Monsters, he was pleased that the problems that he had helped to take his mind off what happened that morning. Well, it helped for a short while anyway, as he soon remembered that the reason he was like this was because of that bitch Myne for accusing him of rape and beating her up. Remembering this made him want to use his fests defeat the Monsters instead of the spikes. Sure it took longer, but it helped with his frustration, as he had no other way to deal with it.

By the time Naofumi decided to take a break and sell the balloon scraps that he got, he was able to master the Equipment Bonus from two shields, the Appraisal Shield and the Treasury Shield. It wasn't much, but at least now he didn't have to keep either of the shield equipped to have their bonuses. The only time he would need to equip the Appraisal Shield is for when he needed to use its Appraisal ability.

As he walked back to the town, he had to admit that he felt slightly better than he did that morning. Sure he still hated the trash King and the other Heroes, along with that bitch Myna, but he had somewhat calmed down for now. Sure, he was pissed at the townspeople for treating him as trash, but he couldn't put the full blame on them, they were reacting to the lies that they heard.

As he was returning to town though, he realized that he was feeling starving, so planned to get something to eat after selling what he had.

But as the young hero entered the tavern to get some food, he saw that it was full and most of the people were giving him dark looks. Looks like they wanted to slowly kill him. As Naofumi walked up to the counter, the person behind it sneered at him and said darkly, "Get out of here, we don't serve a raping woman beating scum like you here."

Naofumi sighed at this, not wanting to get into a fight over this, all he wants to do is to eat and drink something. "Listen, I don't want any trouble, all I want is something to eat and drink, so please give me what I want and I will leave."

"And I told you that we don't serve scum like you here." the person told him, "So leave now or we'll find out how much your shield can really withstand."

At this Naofumi looked around to see many of the adventurers having standing up and cracking their knuckles, happily getting ready for a fight. Naofumi could only sigh, he could see those in the dark corner of the tavern where hooded people were eating trying not to get attention drawn to them. The Shielder expected that these were criminals or those with shady business dealings going on here, but they were being left alone. But here he was, an innocent man who had nothing wrong, being treated like scum all because a fucking bitch princess decided to ruin his life for unknown reasons with sick lies.

Now if it was one maybe two adventurers, he might be able to deal with this. But a full tavern of adventurers who want to kick the living daylights out of him, no, he wasn't that foolish, even he knew when to retreat when facing something like this. So with a sigh, Naofumi stood and left the damn tavern, angry at how he was being treated.

So seeing how he couldn't buy something to eat and drink, he decided to sell the balloon scrap that he got that day. So he went off to the merchant that dealt with monster materials. At least with this, if things didn't go his way, he had a plan ready, that's as long as there were no guards were about.

As Naofumi got to the monster materials merchant, the merchant was a plump little man with dusty blonde hair and upon the merchant seeing the Shield Hero, and he let out a phoney, unpleasant laugh upon seeing Naofumi. Naofumi had an awful thought that this merchant was planning to rip him off.

There was one person in line in front of Naofumi, selling various materials.

"Hmm, yes... how does one copper coin for two pieces sound?" asked the merchant. The merchant pointed at the orange balloon scraps on the counter and assessed their value.

'Hmm, so the going rate was half a copper coin apiece, huh?' Naofumi thought to himself when he heard the price.

"That sounds good." the customer agreed with the price.

"Thank you for your patronage." the merchant said as he counted out the copper coins for the man.

After the merchant he counted out the coins, the customer left and Naofumi walked passed him and stood in front of the merchant and said, "Hey. I've brought some balloon scraps that I wanna sell."

"Of course, welcome, welcome." the merchant greeted with greed in his eyes, upon seeing the Balloon scraps that Naofumi placed on the top, the merchant said, "Ah, yes. Balloon scraps, huh? I can offer you... how does one copper coin for ten pieces sound?"

'The fucking bastard,' Naofumi thought with a sneer, 'A fifth of the value! What kind of rip-off was this!?'

"Didn't you just buy the same thing from the last guy for a lot more?" Naofumi asked politely, try to do this nicely.

"So what if I did?" the merchant asked with a smirk, "Unlike you, he wasn't a criminal nor scum, so I can charge you whatever I like."

If Naofumi allowed things to keep going like this, the damn merchant would probably try to overcharge him even more and telling him that he couldn't do a thing about it, seeing how he was a criminal. So he had one of two options, allow this man try to extort him and get nothing out of his sells, or he can act like the criminal the bitch and king portrayed him as and force him to pay the same amount as the last person he served.

But by doing this though, he knew that it would make things harder for him in the long run, as he would gain a new reputation alright but not the one that he wanted though. It would be one of infamous, making him out to be the criminal that they believed he was. But he knew that if he didn't, he would have the rest of the people in the town, even the kingdom, think he was a pushover and that they could get one over him.

He knew that if he didn't, the money that he had would be gone sooner then he would have liked, and without a way to replenish it, he would have trouble and might get killed during the first wave without the right equipment and supplies. It didn't take him long for him to decide on what path he would take. He tried all day to be nice to the townspeople, show that he wasn't like the rumours said he was, but all they did was to overcharge him, look down on him threaten him and now trying to underpay him. If he didn't do something, well, he didn't want to think about it.

All he wanted was to survive and so that he could be sent home when this was over. If it meant that he had to become a criminal, or at the very least act like one to live through all this, so be it. Right now, if these people didn't want to listen to him and treat him like scum, he wouldn't try and play nice. He didn't have the time nor the patience to deal to make them see otherwise, at least not after how he was treated that day. He had enough and it was time to change things, show them that he wasn't going to be pushed around.

"Hmph. Well then." Naofumi said with a dark smirk as he grabbed the merchant by his collar and pulled merchant towards him.

"Guh, w-what are you…" the merchant tried to ask fearfully.

"Why don't you buy these guys, too? They're much fresher." Naofumi asked darkly, as he pulled the merchant under his cape. There were a chomping sound and sound of snarling from a few Balloon Monsters that were clamping onto the merchant's face.

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" the merchant screamed in fear, "HEEELLLPPP!"

After letting the merchant thrash about for a bit, Naofumi roughly pried the monster off and gave him a kick.

"How about we drag you out to the edge of town and do our business there?" Naofumi asked with a smirk, "I've got plenty more products in stock that I'd love you to take a look at."

Naofumi showed off the five Balloons he had hidden under his cape.

It was something Naofumi had thought of back in the plains. If it didn't hurt no matter how much they bit him, so why not let them? And with how the people were treating him that morning, he realized he could tear them off and stick them on whoever pissed him off. He believed that it was rather brilliant if he did say so himself. And great for negotiations too, they should keep the store keeps from underpaying or overcharging him.

He knew that both his and the Balloon Attack points were low, but these damn Balloons have more attack then he has and seem to hurt people. Something he can't do it right now, so made it impossible for him to threaten people directly. Without being able to hurt them, nobody would take him seriously.

This guy probably realized that as well. But even so, when Naofumi implemented his special tactic he was able to make a future where the merchant was devoured without a trace by Balloons flash before his eyes.

"I'm not going to force you to hand over all your money or anything," Naofumi informed the merchant "but if you don't at least give me market price things could get messy. I'm also expecting at least twenty-five percent more for this deal, as an apology for trying to rip me off."

"You can't do this…" began the merchant.

"Why not?" asked Naofumi, "You seem to be able to try and extort me, so why can't I do the same with you? Not only that but what if I spread rumours that you're ripping off adventurers, what do you think will happen? People seem to believe rumours very well in this world, so I don't think it would be that hard to make people believe you would do such a thing."

Naofumi told the ass with a smirk. He knew that for a merchant like this one, reputation to adventurers was everything. If he had tried to pull a stunt like this with any other adventurer he would have gotten walloped for sure, and probably would have lost a customer to boot. So any bad rumours about him would mean the end of the merchant.

"Guh..." the merchant growled at this, with fury within his eyes at being blackmailed, but as he thought about it, he finally relented and slumped his shoulders. As he knew there was nothing he could do, not if he wanted to keep his business going. So he was forced to give the damn Shield Hero sixty-three copper coins.

As Naofumi took the coins and place them in his new coin bag, he said with a sneer, "Oh, and tell everybody you know about what happened here. I want every merchant in the city to know that messing with means turning into a Balloon snack." With that Naofumi left the threat there as he walked away, to see if he could get some armour.

"Right, right. Whatever you want, you son of a bitch." mattered the merchant, unhappy about what happened there. He would have to speak to the merchants and see if there's anything they could do to stop this.

o0OoO0o

As he was making his way to the Weapon Shop that he went to yesterday, he heard a voice call out angrily, "You Shield Hero bastard."

Looking round to see who was calling him names this time, he only had time to see it was Erhard who threw a punch into Naofumi's stomach. Which knocked the wind out of the Shield Hero. This shocked the young man, as up 'til now he felt no pain from any of the monsters or from the things that the rest of the townspeople threw at him during the last day. Before Naofumi could even think he took a step back watching his stomach and kneeled on the ground coughing and trying not to throw up as he stared up at Erhard angry and disappointed look.

The townspeople just smirked and watched as this was happening, Naofumi believed that he saw looks in some of their eyes that they hoped that Erhard would severely hurt him, or hopefully kill him.

After a moment to catch his breath and not puke all over the ground Naofumi had to collect his thoughts from the pain and focused on wonder what the hell was Erhard's level and strength for him to bypass his high defences like he did, not even the guards back at the castle was able to do what he just did.

"I heard what you done to your companion you fucking scum." Erhard told Naofumi, "I thought you weren't like that, that you were a kind and honest person, who wouldn't do such things to his companions."

"Y, you too huh…" Naofumi said as he coughed in pain, it was strange, this was the first time in this world that he felt any pain.

It would seem that No one wanted to listen to him. No one wanted to believe what he says. Granted, he was from another world and the common sensibilities of this land were a mystery to him. But even then, Naofumi was not the type of person to force himself on a woman. No way! That was below anything that his parents ever taught him, sure he didn't get along with them and disagreed with them with many things, but there was one thing he did agree with them - you don't force yourself onto a women.

He felt sick, everyone believed the lie about him, none of them wanted to hear his side of things and see if it was true or not. Not even Erhard, the weapon shop owner, he felt that he could trust him when he first met the man, but no, by the looks of things, he was wrong there too.

But he had to try, try and get at least one person to believe him when many others wouldn't. "Erhard, I know what you heard, but it's all lies, I -" Naofumi tried to defend himself and tell the truth of what really happened, but as he did though, Erhard hit him once again, this time, in the Shield Hero's face. Right now, on his knees spitting blood out of his mouth, he wanted nothing more than to kill him, Naofumi knew that if he wanted to, he could probably be able to, even with his low attack power, what human could survive with their nicks twisted or a well-placed punch. He knew many people in his world died this way.

As he curled his hand into a fist and glared at the man, Erhard sneered at him as he said, "Why would I listen to the lies of some scumbag who rapes and beats a woman? You'll say anything to get away from doing such things."

Here Naofumi saw that Erhard was about to kick him, but before the kick could hit the Shield Hero though, a huge hand stopped him, a hand which was about two feet big. Lookat up to see who the hand belonged to, he saw something that shocked him. A dwarf like person wearing blacksmiths clothing, but unlike normal dwarves that he knew of, which were between three foot and a half to just over four foot and a half, this one looked about double the size than he was. He had a face which looked like it was made in a forge, with amber short hair and beard side-burns. On his back, there was a huge hammer attached to it.

"Erhard, what the hell are you playing at?" a deep booming like voice came from the huge dwarf.

"He raped and beat his female companion." Erhard explained darkly, he might have been fine if the story was just about rape, as he would expect that the young less didn't like the idea of not getting her own way and so decided to get revenge on the young man by crying rape, but he couldn't see why a girl like her who seem to care about her looks would beat herself to frame the Shield Hero even if it was in this country with its stupid religion.

"I've heard the story and seen the so called evidence Erhard," admitted the huge dwarf like person, "but you know how this country is, you should at least let the boy tell you his side of things. As they say, there's normal two sides of a story. So before you start beating the young led to a bloody pulp, hear him out." the huge dwarf tried to reason the other blacksmith, "You're the one who told me about him buying equipment from you and the female in question, you said that he looked at like a trustworthy fellow but a little naive. We both know that, whilst rare, there are girls like to make trouble for adventurers like the Shield Hero here, by telling lies." He didn't want to let it slip that he knew who the girl was, as if the townspeople find out that it was the damn princess who said this, there would be outrage and an outcry for the Shield Hero's blood.

"Ulthane, you're right, there have been woman like that," admitted Erhard, "but none of them ever beat themselves up just to frame someone!" admitted Erhard "And why the hell are you even caring? Usually you don't get involved with other people's confluence or problems other than just making them any tool you think they might need?"

"That is true, normally my race doesn't interfere with other people's business, we're the type that stay neutral and help either side. We only take sides if the balance is threatened." explained Ulthane.

"So why help the raping bastard?" asked Erhard, unable to believe that someone like Ulthane would place himself in a conflict when normally would keep himself to himself and not bother with what was going on.

"Because he is a Summoned Cardinal Hero," the giant told the other blacksmith, "for him to be summoned as a hero, he needed to have qualities of a hero, compassion, loyalty just naming a few treats. So I find it hard to believe that the Shield Hero would do such a thing."

"That might be the case in their world, but we've heard about the side-effects that happens when they are summoned here," Erhard told Ulthane, "the one that gives them memory problems and personality changes. So how do we know that one of these side-effects didn't alter him so that makes him into something like a villain."

"You really believe that such side-effects would change a person that much?" Ulthane asked in disbelief.

"We don't know, but anything is possible," reasoned Erhard, "that's better reason than why a women would beat herself up. Come on, have you ever heard of a woman beating herself up?"

"No," admitted Ulthane, "but it doesn't mean they didn't, remember, men of this world are executed for such things."

"Just like the Shield Hero should have been." one of the townspeople called out.

Ulthane just sighed at this, realizing that no matter what he says, they'll think that the young Shield Hero is the villain. So with another sigh he said, "Fine, seeing how I can't change your mind over this, I'll leave you be. But I'll be taking the Shield Hero with me. There's an ominous storm brewing and the Shield Hero here is in the centre of it, how bad of the storm depends on your actions here right this moment."

Here a few of people stepped back, as the last few times that Ulthane mentioned about ominous storms brewing, some sort of disaster happens to the kingdom. So to hear one surrounding the Shield Hero, they backed off a bit. Worried as to what would happen if they didn't.

"You and your ominous storms!" Erhard said with a sigh, unhappy about this turn around of things. "You do realize that the Waves of Calamity are happening so your ominous storm Prediction is kind of late and crappy."

"The Waves of Calamity is just part of the storm," admitted Ulthane with a smirk, "the Four Cardinal Heroes also are part of this storm. Whatever happens to them also affects the storm too, so you decide, have a rough but durable storm or a storm that's rough and uncontrollable, A storm to end all storms?"

Now Erhard wasn't too sure what to think about this, if what happens to Four Cardinal Heroes affects the Waves, it was best to act on the air of caution. At least until they knew for sure. So with a sigh of frustration he said, "Fine, take the damn rapist. But know this, he'll be watched and any crimes or misdeeds will be down to you."

"I'm more than happy to take care of him." said Ulthane, as he helped Naofumi of the ground and the two walked away.

The crowd wasn't pleased with how the situation was handled, they were hoping that Erhard would beat the Shield Hero to a pulp, showing him what they all thought of him. But with Ulthane siding with him, they knew better than to make the giant mad, so all they could do was to disperse and get on with their day.

o0OoO0o

As Ulthane lead Naofumi outside the town, Naofumi said, "Thanks for the help back there, but why did you do it?" He wasn't trying to be rude, but after the day that he had, he had problems trusting people right now. For someone to help him without reason, he couldn't help but be suspicious. "That bastard Erhard said that you are normally stayed neutral in such things."

"It's as I told Erhard, I helped you because you're one of the Four Cardinal Heroes." explained Ulthane, "What those fools didn't realize is that should you die, it'll be near impossible for the other three Cardinal Heroes to defeat the Waves of Calamity. All four of you are needed to save this world."

"You gotta be kidding me, you mean I really have to work with those three assholes, and it's not something the damn king made up to keep me here?" Naofumi asked in shock and anger, he didn't think that the king was lying to him that he had to work with the other heroes, but part of him thought it could have been a twisted punishment for the so called rape on his daughter. The problem was that he didn't think he could work with the three of them after what they have done to him.

"I didn't say that you have to like them or anything, nor do you have to spend your free time with them." Ulthane told the Shield Hero, "But if there's any chance of you going home, you'll need to live through the Waves, which means that you'll have to work with the other heroes too."

Before he could think about this, Naofumi found himself in a tree garden, where he and Ulthane was in front of a group of huge tree stumps that seemed to look like a man's faces. The stump was twice the size of Ulthane. Ulthane stood in front of one of them and taking his hammer from his back where he slammed it onto the ground. As he did, a magical wave came from it and one of the tree stump mouths opened, showing steps going down into the ground. As they walked through the mouth and walked down the steps, the mouth closed behind them.

As they got to the bottom, Naofumi eyes grew wide as he could not believe the sight in front of him, he was grateful that he was wearing his thermal cloak. As when he entered the room, he saw a powerful forge which was powered by lava with waterfalls carved into the side redirecting water to specific locations in the Forge. He had to guess that as the reason why he didn't notice the sheer heat at first, was because of the cloak.

Just by looking around, Naofumi could see many weapons of different makes and models lying on the wall, some were ancient, but they looked like they could still be used for a great war. The others look brand-new and more powerful than he could ever imagine.

Ulthane went to one of the draws and took two glasses out and a flask of of it and poured the two of them a drink. Whilst Ulthane seemed nice enough, but with how people have been treating him all day and how Erhard tried to kick him to a pulp, he couldn't help but look at the drink with suspicion, which made Ulthane roll his eyes before drinking some of it and handing it back to the Shield Hero.

With a smile, Naofumi took the drink before slowly sipping at it, but with just a slip, it made his eyes go wide and he nearly spat out the drink. "Oh my God!" Naofumi grasped as he caught his breath, grimacing at the taste making him shiver and stick out his tongue. He had to admit, he had never tasted anything like this before, in fact, he normally didn't taste anything when he drank alcohol before. It was bland to him. This was some alcohol for him to taste it. "What kind of foul concoction is that!"

"Hahaha," laughed Ulthane as he took a slip of his drink, "it's a family recipe guaranteed to put hair on your chest and to warm you up in the coldest of winters, also not bad for making a bad day a little bit better. So how about you tell me your side of the story, what really happened with you and the princess?"

"You know that the damn bitch was a princess?" Naofumi asked in shock, "How do you know and the rest of the damn town didn't?"

"The reason as to why they don't know about the princess, is two reason," explained Ulthane, "the first is that no one outside the castle has ever really seen her. Her parents protect their children, so that no one knows what they look like until they are eighteen. Which leads to the second reason why no one knew about her, so that she could go out and about is that the children use another name to go by when outside the castle, for Malty the Princess that you met it's Mein Sophia."

"So I take it that there's at least a Second Princess?" Naofumi asked in concern, worried about another royal bitch to fuck him over somehow.

"That there is, but I don't know her name." Ulthane informed the Shield Hero, "I only know about the Malty because I saw her at the castle one time and technically speaking, whilst Malty is known as the First Princess and you expect her to become the next Queen, that's not true. There's some kind of scandal, and whilst I'm not too sure what it is, I do know that the Nobles seems to know. All I know is that it's how she treats men. Because of this, she was pushed back from inheriting the throne to her younger sister. So, your story?"

Naofumi couldn't help but to smark at this, seeing that Myne wasn't going to be Queen. But he had to wonder if the Second Princess was like her sister. Either way, he sighed before he told Ulthane his tail seeming to feel a little bit better after speaking to the giant dwarf, sure not by much but some. He felt a bit more calmer for the first time that day finally being able to just relax for a little bit. Don't get him wrong, he didn't trust Ulthane fully, he wasn't going to do that again in this world, but at least he got someone who seems to be on his side for now.

"Damn boy, that is rough. She totally screwed you." Ulthane whistled as he heard the story, "I heard the stories that she uses men to her own needs, but I never thought she would go this far."

"Yeah, she screwed me alright." Naofumi admitted darkly, unhappy about what she did to him, "Anyway, I have a question for you, you seem to know more about these Waves than most I have spoken with so far, how is this? How much of this do you know about this."

"Sadly not as much as you nor I would like." Ulthane said with a deep sigh, "Before I say more, what do you know about the summoning?"

"Other than that me and the other three came from alternate earths and timelines, I don't know anything." Naofumi informed the blacksmith.

"Well, that's good for our talks." Ulthane said with a sad smile, "So would it be surprising if I told you that I came from another world?"

"How is that possible?" asked Naofumi in shock, "I thought that the only people who can come to this world are those who are summoned here."

"That's not totally true," Ulthane informed the Shield Hero, "do you know why the Waves happen?"

"No, I have been wondering about this myself, but I have no idea." Naofumi admitted thoughtfully.

"I don't know the full story myself, but I know this, the Waves are one big game to some powerful unknown deity." explained Ulthane, "That this deity pits two worlds against each other, sending Waves to each world to see which world be destroyed first, the surviving world would live on and the Waves would stop, whilst the world that lost will have the world destroyed. This deity has done this to multiple worlds over time, pitting two worlds against each other - who knows how long they have been doing this. There was another thing to this so-called game, the people on these worlds had two options, either save the world or save the people."

"That saying, I heard of them before somewhere." Naofumi admitted as he remembered a dream, it was fike, he couldn't remember it all, but he remembered that saying clearly. "I thought it was one and the same, that if you save the world you would save the people."

"At any other time you would be right," admitted Ulthane, "but the problem is that in this so-called game, it's not. In this game, by saving the world would mean sacrificing many people to do so, but saving the people would mean sacrificing a world."

"How would sacrificing people would save the world?" asked a shocked Naofumi.

"That I don't know, as the people my world decided to save its people instead of saving our world, by coming to this world." explained Ulthane.

"Why would they give up their world for?" asked Naofumi. Whilst he happy that they did this, he was shocked that they would give up their homeworld.

Ulthane sighed at this, "Well, this happened about eight hundred years when my great grandfather, Grandfather Ulthane came to this world."

"Don't you mean your great, great, great whatever grandfather?" asked Naofumi, a bit confused about this.

"No, I mean my father's, father's, father," Ulthane informed Naofumi, "you see my race age differently than most races. Whilst I might not look like it, the fact is, I am just over one hundred and fifty years old. You could say I'm still a child, at least in the eyes of my race, one of my race is over a billion of years old, at least that's what I was told anyway."

Naofumi was shocked when he heard this, he couldn't believe that such people were able to live for so long. He was unable to think what to say to this, so he asked the next best thing, "So why did your great grandfather and the people of his world came to this one?"

"Because our world was more or less dead anyway," explained Ulthane, "you see when the Waves hit my great grandfather's world, it was rebuilding the world after the Apocalypse."

"What do you mean they were rebuilding the world after an Apocalypse?" asked Naofumi.

"Well, that's where my story begins…" said Ulthane.

Here Ulthane began the story of his world, wherein his universe, demons, angels, devils and gods were real. Learning this shocked Naofumi, sure he learned that alternate universes were real, but he wasn't expecting that demons, angels, devils and gods were real too. But then again, he shouldn't be too surprised about it, with alternate universes, who knows what were in them and what sort of magic was used.

Either way, Ulthane went on to explain about his Great Grandfather Ulthane, where he was convinced by an Archangel Abaddon, the former leader of the Hellguard, the great warriors of Heaven, to go along with Abaddon's plan. A plan to end demons and devils before the End War could even begin.

When asked what the plan was, Ulthane admitted that he wasn't too sure. But the story was that the Angel of Death known as Azrael would destroy six of the seven Seals, which should summon the demons and devils but not to start the End War. Then Abaddon would use the Hellguard to defeat the demons and devils for 'breaking the peace treaty,' when in fact they didn't and were just answering the summoning of the seals being broken. Then the final part of the plan was that his Great Grandfather would fix the seals before anyone could check them should the demons say that they were summoned by the breaking of the seals, they would find the seals would be as if they won't broken and so those from hell lied and so they would be taken down for breaking the treaty.

Reasons to how Lilith found out about the plan was unsure, some believe that she wanted revenge for what happened to her children. Another reason was that she was following the orders from the Dark Prince, Lucifer. No really knew the truth about it, at least My Great Grandfather didn't know.

But their plan didn't turn out the way that they wanted, as what they didn't know, and something that Ulthane's Great Grandfather found out much later, was that Lilith, the mother and creator of the Nephilim, knew about this and was prepared for them. So the battle didn't go as planned, as the Apocalypse happened meaning the end of Mankind. Not only that, but Abaddon became a demon known as the Destroyer along with War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, got framed for starting it all.

War, like the other three Horsemen, were children of Lilith - which meant that they were Nephilim. War, Death, Fury and Strife were enforcers for Charred Council, a powerful force created by the Creator to keep the balance. One thing that the Horsemen did to keep the order was to destroy their own kind, they did this when the Nephilim under Absalom, the Horsemen's older brother, the burned entire Realms in a wrathful crusade for a realm of their own.

Back to Ulthane's story, he went on to explain that his Great Grandfather went into self-exile for his part of the end of Mankind. Over the years the other Horsemen has done their part to return Mankind back to the Realm of Man and to protect them and each other. Over that time, Ulthane's Great Grandfather did what he could to redeem himself in his part of the Apocalypse, by helping Fury and Strife and protecting the humans that were brought back to the world thanks to Death.

It wasn't until about a hundred years after the Apocalypse that Ulthane's Great Grandfather was able to redeem himself fully when War reappeared and was able to help him. During the weeks that War reappeared, he went to search for those who did this to him, in doing so, he defeated the former Archangel Abaddon now Demon Lord Destroyer. Not only that, but War found out another group behind what happened, a group that allowed these things to happen, to him and to Mankind, the Charred Council.

It would seem that the Charred Council new about Abaddon and the conspiracy he and his accomplices had enacted to start the Apocalypse as a preemptive strike against Hell. They considered summoning the Horsemen to handle him, but the Council determined that, without proof, their enforcers would not carry out an execution, but only mass murder: a critical offence to the riders' sense of honour. Instead, they sent War to Earth and framed him for the premature Apocalypse.

They knew that the Horseman would stop at nothing to clear his name and kill everyone involved, thereby silencing all who dared challenge their power along with the wrongfully accused Horsemen when all was said and done. Furthermore, the Council would use this opportunity to further their own goals by using this fix of disloyalty to the pact as a means of furthering their own sources of intrigue against all whom they deemed a threat, such as Humanity whom they knew would one day become the concept they pretended to uphold.

It would seem that the Charred Council feared that Humanity would become a great threat overtime should they be left alone, so the Council knew that they had to do whatever it took to get rid of Mankind, even if it meant the Apocalypse.

But it didn't go their way through, as War broke the Seventh Seal, the one that allowed the Four Horsemen to run free and punish the guilty and regain the balance. It would allow them their full power to do so. So over the following months, the Four Horsemen slowly regained balance, killing the guilty and making sure that Mankind would be fine at the end of it all.

By the end of it all, not only did the Horseman defeated their mother and the Dark Prince, Lucifer, but they also defeated Charred Council. But not by the means that they would have liked, they were too powerful to kill and they were immortal, so the only thing that they could do was to seal them so that they could never do harm again.

Ulthane ended the story by telling Naofumi that after the End War, his Great Grandfather along with others helped Mankind to rebuild. But it wasn't to be though, because a few months later, the Waves of Calamity began. They knew that after what happened to them and how powerful the monsters were, even if they won again, they didn't think they would have enough people to rebuild Mankind. So they did the only thing they could think of, learning that they could transport to another world, it was decided that Mankind along with Ulthane's Great Grandfather and his people and a few others would go to the new world, to Azeroth, and start anew.

"Hum… so what happened to the Horsemen?" asked Naofumi, "And the others their mother, Lucifer and this Charred Council?"

"My people don't know," Ulthane admitted, "all I know is that the Horsemen and a few trusted angels and other allies stayed behind to make sure that most of the demons and the angels that helped to start the Apocalypse stayed behind so that they wouldn't come to this world to create problems here. Sure a few did, not much could do about that, but they kept as many of the most powerful angels and demons from coming here."

"What about your Gods and Devils?" asked Naofumi, worried about facing them.

"No one knows, as they had powers to get them to other worlds if they want, so no one knows what happened to them." explained Ulthane, "As for what happened to the Four Horsemen, whilst they aren't ones easy to kill, especially when they work together, they make them some of the most powerful Defenders that I have ever heard of. However, seeing how we haven't heard from them all these years we fear the worse happened and they died when our old world was destroyed, along with the angels and demons. My family believes that if they were still alive and in this world, they would have made themselves known, especially the demons. These demons won't known for laying low."

"I see." Naofumi simply said, unsure how to react to this, just happy that he wouldn't have to deal with these powerful demons. "So, I mean to ask you, not to be rude, but what is your race? You look like a dwarf from games/movies from my world, but so, so much taller though."

"I know what you mean," Ulthane informed the Shield Hero, "my grandfather told us stories about our old world, it seems like the common idea from the dwarves came from my race somehow. But whoever it was, seemed to want to throw in a little insult and made us into this short creatures, either to make fun of us or they mistook something else for us. We definitely look like what the stories of dwarves what we've heard from multiple worlds, but our race is known as the Makers. Whoever it was who drew us, they got one thing right about us and that's we're great Craftsman and can build anything as long as we have our powerful forge and the right materials."

Naofumi looked at the Maker thoughtfully, the story that he had just heard was amazing and sad, but also he was a bit worried. He was slowly getting his head round with what Ulthane told him, Ulthane's Home World had gone through a lot. His world just got through an Apocalyptic Event and they were rebuilding their world, when all of a sudden this Waves of Calamity appeared and because they were only getting over what happened to them, they decided to leave their world instead. As they didn't have the manpower or the resources to fight on.

He could understand a bit why they did this, they had lost so much already and suddenly a possible second Apocalyptic Event was handed to them. One where they didn't have the manpower or resources and their morale was low, so it was no wonder they would want to start anew in a new world.

Whilst he didn't know the full story of War, he could feel for the Nephilim. But he knew the Horsemen was betrayed by others, got the blame for something he didn't do. Part of him wanted to believe that War fought tooth and nail to redeem himself, but as a Horsemen of the Apocalypse, he more than likely has done much worse. So what he did was for revenge and to make those who had done him wrong pay.

Whilst he didn't know the full story of these Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Naofumi didn't think that they were heroes who saved humanity out of the goodness of their hearts. As Ulthane told him, the Horsemen were there to punish those who were guilty at the time of the Apocalypse. So they could have easily punished someone from humanity along with the angels and demons. From Ulthane they dealt with great threats and keeping the balance, protecting humanity wasn't part of their job description. So for them to help humanity, Naofumi expected that they were either forced or tricked into it or they did it for some other reason.

"Are you sure that there's nothing you can tell me about the Waves or the deity behind them?" asked Naofumi, wanting to get this part of the questioning out of the way.

"Not really no," Ulthane told him, "the only reason that we know about them is because of Elder Eideard informed my Great Grandfather and a few trusted others about the deity."

"Can I see this Elder Eideard?" asked Naofumi, hoping to talk to him, in the hopes that he may know more about the Waves, "And how did he know about them."

"I'm sorry to say that you cannot," Ulthane informed the Shield Hero, "he along with my Great Grandfather and a few other Makers stayed behind to help the Horsemen and the others to make sure humans and a few other races like the Makers could come to this world without problems. So any information about them was lost. As for how Elder Eideard knew about them, it's because the deity sent someone to him to make the Legendary Weapons along with some backup weapons."

"What!?" Naofumi asked in shock, "Does that mean you know how to alter them if needed? And what backup weapons?" Naofumi was hoping that if this Elder Eideard made the Legendary Weapons, he might have left some plans on how they were made and possible how to alter them if needed or if they broke how to fix them. As if they had plans, they might be able to alter his shield so that he could hold weapons.

"Unfortunately no," Ulthane admitted with a deep sigh, "as Elder Eideard kept the details to himself, out of fear that someone might get there hands on the plans like the demons or angels but maybe even something worse than that. All I know is that he made the weapons from Uru, a metal that's near impossible to break and which can change and adapt to the wielders preference when needed. All I know is that Elder Eideard created eight Legendary Weapons and twice as many backup weapons known as Vassal Weapons for the people of that world."

"What are Vassal Weapons?" asked Naofumi.

"Same as Legendary Weapons, but they are less potential in power." explained Ulthane, "Either way, from what I can tell, this deity give each world four Legendary Weapons and eight Vassal Weapons. And the world that is able to beat the waves not only survive the Apocalypse and keep their world going, but also keep the ability to summon the Weapons again, but only so that they can partake in the so-called games again."

"Why do you say that?" asked a worried Naofumi.

"Because, this is the fourth time the Waves hit since my people came to this world, or so I was told." explained the Maker, "I believe the only way for this world to stop having these Waves is for this world to be destroyed."

Naofumi realized that whilst he didn't like this world as much as he hoped, mainly because of how these people have been treating him, this world didn't have much luck. At least five times the Waves hit this world, maybe more. To this world, they had to deal with Waves of Calamity for over eight hundred years. He might hate them, but he couldn't help but to feel sorry for them, he wouldn't wish this sort of thing on his worst enemy.

"Either way, are you sure that there's nothing else you can tell me about these Waves or this Apocalyptic Game?"

Ulthane looked thoughtful as he tried to remember if there was anything his race told him about the Waves or this Apocalyptic Game, as he just shook his head and looked at the Shield Hero and said, "Not much to be honest, there's a rumour that there's a soul of a Maker in each of the Weapons. They were given the ability to send the heroes from summoned worlds a way back home and give certain rewards to them, I don't know if it's true or not."

"How is that possible?" asked Naofumi.

"Because when we die, our souls are too ancient to be drawn to the Kingdom of the Dead, so instead, they somehow make ours souls into something called Heart Stones." explained the Maker, "Depending on how powerful the soul was, it could create a lot of Heart Stones. These Stones normally powers robot-like beings known as Constructs, that are used as warriors and builders. It was said that some Constructs regained its memories. Anyway, watch of these Legendary and Vassal Weapons has a Heart Stone to power them."

"Are you saying that the shield is able to talk to me?" Naofumi asked in shock, but it would explain the strange dream he had with a while back.

"No, not that simple," explained Ulthane, "from what I can understand from those who spoke to the last Cardinal Heroes, they only talk to them at the end of the Waves. To see what reward they want or if they wanted to be sent home or not. The only thing I can tell is that with each Wave, the fights get harder and harder. And should even just one of the Cardinal Heroes die, it would be near impossible to defeat the Waves."

Naofumi wasn't ready for this talk, the small betrayal that they did towards him was too fresh. When he tried to defend himself against the Bitch and the Trash King, they easily believed them and not willing to listen to his side of things. Truth was, he was annoyed at the Spear and Bow Hero, but the true betrayal was from Renka. He thought more than anything that she would hear him out, especially after the night they had last night. He wasn't ready to think about working with them just yet, he was too annoyed and angry about it all to think straight. Right now, all he wanted was to be left alone and calm down before he does anything else.

"Listen, if you don't mind, I have two questions for you before I leave." said Naofumi.

"Sure, I have no problems with that." Ulthane told the young man.

"Whilst I'm thankful for helping me back at the town, I was wondering, if I wasn't the Shield Hero, would you have helped me?" asked Naofumi.

"No, I wouldn't." admitted Ulthane without a second thought, "As I told you, I'm normally natural, so I wouldn't intervene with other problems. But should anything happen to you, the balance and this world would have been destroyed. So I had to intervene."

Naofumi expected this answer, but he wanted to know for sure. So he asked his final question, "Whilst it isn't true, would you have changed your mind about helping me if I really did rape the princess?"

"Yes I would." once again Ulthane admitted without a second thought, "My people don't care about good or evil, in fact back in my world we would work for either angel or demon, as long as they didn't try to kill us or destroy the balance or the world. So it would be the same for you and everyone else in this world, good or evil, as long as you don't try to do one of those three things, we would be willing to work with you."

"I see." said Naofumi, glad to see that no matter what happens in this world, he would have at least one place where he could get armour and new shields from. Thinking about it, he realized that he needed to see what the cost of getting a new armour would cost.

But before he could ask about this though, someone ran into the forge calling out, "Master, I have some information for you."

To Be Continued

Author's Note: Here ends another chapter of The Rising of Shield Demon, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and if you enjoyed the chapter, please leave some feedback and let me know what you thought of it. Once again, I'm sorry about Erhard, but as I said, I can't see him working with an evil Naofumi, so I had to change things about.

The reason that I used Darksiders, was because I wanted to use some of the demons that were in the game for the story. Not only that, but I wanted to show that other people from other worlds came to this world other than demi-humans if I remember reading somewhere is true.

Now as you review, I have four requests, the first is could you look over the last few chapters and see if you can help me with the other things that I have asked about in the past chapter. The second is how could Naofumi become angrier at the other heroes and such. The third thing is that what other crimes could Naofumi do to become evil, I have plans of him becoming a bandit soon, but I was wondering what crimes he could do as a bandit.

Keep in mind Naofumi is still starting out on his darkening path, so please don't suggest murder right off the bat. Not only that, but he won't be raping anyone at the current moment, so those two crimes are off for now. Also, could you please check over the anime and other stuff and avoid giving me and my beta reader suggestions that he will actually already do but if you can give us crimes and why he would do them that would be lovely.

Lastly, when you are coming up with OCs, I would like the OCs to be male, whilst I like females, I need males too, for fighters, not only for Naofumi but for two of the three heroes. I don't see Motoyasu having men in his party as long as Bitch is in it, even then he wouldn't recruit men into his party.

In the next chapter, I'm planning to show Naofumi's levelling up system. This levelling up system is with skill and attributes points like in many games, but I was wondering, should I do this for all of the characters, or should this be Naofumi's personal strengthing method? Where he uses skill and attributes points to become stronger. Please know your thoughts.